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LAWRENCEVILLE - Several Gwinnett County restaurant managers recently received a serious-sounding letter from the Georgia Food Service Compliance Center in Atlanta.
According to the notice on official letterhead, restaurants are required to post hand-washing signs at all sinks. These posters must be of specific sizes, as presented in section 2-310.12 of "the code" and cannot be homemade, the GFSCC warns. Investigations and inspections are forthcoming, and any food service establishment found in violation could pay fines as high as $2,500 per day of violation, possibly lose their business license and might even face one year in prison, according to the mailer.
The vision of jail time for failing to erect the correct size hand washing poster can be a frightening thought. However, the Georgia Food Service Compliance Center will sell an operator signs made to "exact specifications" for $19.95, plus $2.95 each for shipping.
Sounds like a cheap price to pay to avoid a $2,500 a day fine and a year behind bars.
So what's the catch?
Restaurant operators don't have to buy them, said Vernon Goins, public information officer for the East Metro Health District in Lawrenceville.
"There is no penalty under Georgia's current codes for not posting hand-washing signs," Goins said. "We bring them when we conduct an inspection. If they are old and battered, we replace them free of charge. We encourage them and provide posters at no charge to the restaurant."
Restaurant operators can pick up signs at the Gwinnett County Health Department at 240 Oak St. in Lawrenceville. In fact, if a restaurant owner or manager doesn't particularly care for the free signs provided, they may make their own or have no signs at all, if they choose, Goins said.
The code 2-301.12 quoted in the letter is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's instructions on hand washing, which doesn't mention penalties for failing to hang signs.
Durango Steak House in Lawrenceville received the letter about two months ago. Restaurant managers said it was a very generic letter, but it looked real. They called the local health inspector's office to make sure they had the correct size hand-washing signs posted and learned the letter was not from a government agency at all.
Georgia is the latest state to endure a rash of warning letters regarding the signage. State agencies in Michigan, Missouri, Kentucky, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia have posted press releases regarding the Food Service Compliance Center's practices. Various government agencies in those states have released statements disputing the letter's claims.
The Georgia Food Service Compliance Center's distinguished letterhead lists its location as 931 Monroe Drive Suite 102 #401, Atlanta. That address leads to a mailbox in a UPS store near Ansley Mall. A retail counter person confirmed that the GFSCC rents a box in the store, but would not point out which one or disclose any other names associated with the mailbox.
James Trahan, manager of the franchise UPS store, said they plan to take no action at this time against the Food Service Compliance Center.
"An investigation would have to come through the Consumer Affairs Department or the Better Business Bureau," Trahan said.
The letter lists GFSCC's business ID number. But Sherry Johnson of Atlanta's Business Licensing Office said the number was too long to be one of theirs. Her office has no record of a business license issued to the Georgia Food Service Compliance Center, although they could be licensed under another name, she said.
Angela Fox, a customer service manager for the Food Service Compliance Center, said the center is based in Michigan. She agreed to answer any written questions faxed to her toll-free telephone number. The answers never came, and customer service representatives hung up on later calls.
The Food Service Compliance Center has recorded a disclaimer on its toll-free line stating that the federal food code and penalties referred to in the letter may not apply to certain states. Restaurant staff can make those signs themselves, the recording advises.
A search through the Better Business Bureau's Web site turned up no complaints about the Food Service Compliance Center. The company's Richmond, Va., business address, the only one listed with the Better Business Bureau, leads to a single-family home whose occupant said he has never heard of the company.
Is the Food Service Compliance Center breaking any laws by misquoting regulations and implying that restaurant operators could be fined and imprisoned for having the wrong size hand-washing signs or none at all?
"An investigation would have to happen to answer that question," said Shawn Conroy, spokesman for the Governor's Office of Consumer Affairs. "If they are misrepresenting the fact that these signs are required, it is possibly deceptive and possibly against the Fair Business Practices Act."
Goins said restaurant operators should also check out anyone who comes to the business claiming to be a health inspector.
"We require our people to wear badges," Goins said. "If someone doesn't show that badge, the owner or manager should demand it. We are not a top secret agency."


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Last week, Jim Cramer held his annual draft fantasy stock, and the "Mad Money" host is now helping investors scan the "waiver wire" market to find some bargains.
"There's some real fantasy-football gibberish that means trying to get some bargains, players not signed by other teams that have turned out to be interesting prospects or thrown off, and maybe they shouldn't be. "Cramer said Wednesday.
In addition to Okta, Service Now and Salesforce. com, which he also chose last week, here are the new companies Cramer believes investors will put into their portfolio after week 1:
Starbucks coffee giant is up more than 5% since Thursday, closed at 90.98 on Wednesday. The stock has been hurt by comments last week from CEO Kevin Johnson, who said next year's financial income will see slower growth than expected because a one-time tax benefit boosted revenues in 201
But Cramer is not concerned about any of these developments, saying that Johnson's remarks do not matter because "the company's operating revenue growth model is intact."
The SEC problem "was a nothing burger simple and easy," Cramer argued.
"There were 200 other companies that were flagged. It was a routine accounting study of one industry. Only Starbucks made the headlines," Cramer said.
All about it, this is what Starbucks Cramer said.
The software company VMWare's stock, which closed at 154.43 on Wednesday, is nearly 25% down since its 2019 high of 205.52 on May 16.
But Cramer said he had renewed trust in Palo Alto, California-based company, in part because COO Sanjay Poonen explained to "Mad Money" on Tuesday how the recent acquisitions could benefit.
VMWare, a cloud virtualization company, purchased the cybersecurity firm Carbon Black and Pivotal, which have products that help companies create and install their software across different server infrastructures. The acquisitions were valued at $ 4.8 billion.
"I had been skeptical considering that Pivotal appeared to be a move away from VMWare's parent company Dell. But Poonen changed me," Cramer said. "I also think the Dell Crowdstrike ratio will be severely shrunk by the Carbon Black acquisition. No wonder VMWare amassed more than a dollar today."
Splunk CEO Doug Merritt appeared on "Mad Money" last week, and after thinking about what he heard, Cramer said he sees a strong investment opportunity.
"I think we get a chance to buy it at an incredible bargain," Cramer said. "Spunk is a premier data analytics game that will help its customers gain real insight from machine data. And in a world where Salesforce.com is willing to buy Tableau Software, if this thing just stays here, Spunk can make a lot of sense as a acquisition targets, "Cramer said.
Splunk, which focuses largely on analyzing big data, has seen the stock fall almost 20% from the high year in 2019. It stands at 113.89 after Wednesday's close, down from 140.73 July 26.
"Splunk is too real, and this stock market seems to be fake," Cramer added.
Cramer offered two more companies that would make sense as possible clue choices: Shopify and Chipotle.
Cramer praised Shopify for its recent acquisition of $ 450 million automated warehouse startup. Shopify is expected to come second behind Amazon for US e-commerce soon.
"But the stock is in decline – it has now given up 70 straight points – and who knows when it will find its bottom. Maybe it happened today," Cramer said, noting the stock fetched $ 10 on Wednesday.
When it comes to Chipotle, Cramer said because he is the best performer in the S&P 500, but still starts to hit a wall because of a stock market rotation, "it's bound to scare people who then continue to throw reasons for the decline. "
" But it's not, "Cramer said, adding that Chipotle was also caught in the same SEC filing as Starbucks.
It's actually business seems to be accelerating, Cramer said.
"When you get a chance to buy the best of the best down nearly 10%, it's like stomping a wide receiver over a bye week," Cramer said.

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CU InfoSecurity Conference speakers tell attendees they need better artificial intelligence capabilities to thwart cyber attacks.
PSCU reports “a couple hundred thousand dollars” in saved chargebacks already as the big card brands prepare solutions to perceptions of chip card speed trap.
Credit union card processors say conversion process is well underway, and don’t call it a deadline.
In a day and age when cyber security is of utmost concern, how can expanding your payment acceptance capabilities protect both you and your borrowers?
Comprehensive, dynamic practices and processes bring card holder and issuer together to combat growing fraud threat.
As revealing reports add up, credit union CISO relates a success story in social engineering and the fight against cyber fraud.
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5 Top Stocks to Buy in March
March 2, 2023
Despite a positive start to the year, US stocks finished the final trading day of February in the red.
All three of the main US equity benchmarks closed lower in the month of February.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 4.2% for the month while the S&P 500 Index and NASDAQ Composite were both down by 2.6% and 1.1%, respectively.
Stocks sold off in February after concerns resurfaced over the persistent inflationary pressure that sparked a rise in US Treasury yields.
As long-term investors, it makes sense to think beyond the current market volatility and focus on which companies will best weather the upcoming volatility.
With this in mind, here are my five top stocks that I believe investors should buy and hold in March.
1. Bank of America
Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) is among one of the key beneficiaries of the rising interest rate environment.
Bank of America, also known as BofA, is one of the largest banks in America, and has benefitted from the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) aggressive rate hike cycles.
With more interest rate hikes expected this year, albeit at a less aggressive pace, this should help BofA in 2023.
The bank reported its fourth quarter and year-end earnings at the beginning of this year and both revenue and earnings beat Wall Street’s estimates.
As loan growth activity remains robust, along with rising interest rates, this should lead to a boost in its net interest income (NII) this year.
Aside from that, its credit quality is also another positive as seen by the decline in its nonperforming loans ratio in Q4 FY2022.
BofA also has a good mix of credit between consumer and commercial loans, with consumer loans making up 44% of the total while commercial loans account for about 56%.
Valuation is also attractive as BofA is trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio (PE) of 9.63 times and has a sustainable dividend yield of 2.6%.
Soft drink giant Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO) ended FY2022 strongly as organic sales were up 15% for the Q4 2022 period.
Coca-Cola was also able to increase prices at a double-digit percentage rate across most of its portfolio, reflecting its ability to manage rising costs.
In terms of operating margin, Coca-Cola was superior at 28% of sales as compared to its key competitor – PepsiCo Inc (NASDAQ: PEP) – which has an operating margin of around 13%.
In FY2022, Coca-Cola generated US$11 billion of operating cash and management is projecting an improvement going into this year.
This helps to keep its dividend payout attractive. In fact, Coca-Cola has a 60-year history of dividend growth with a 70% dividend payout ratio.
This translates into a dividend yield of around 2.9%.
Given the uncertain market, Coca-Cola will definitely be among the top picks for me as we head towards the second quarter of 2023.
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) is a technology company known for its flagship products such as Windows operating system, Office productivity suite and Visual Studio software development tools.
In recent years, its cloud computing services including Azure, Dynamics 365, and Office 365 have been key growth drivers.
Recently, we have seen a pullback in the share price as Wall Street is concerned on the slowing growth in the near term.
In fact, we saw a drop in PC shipments in the latest quarter while Microsoft’s cloud computing segment also slowed.
However, smart investors will look past those concerns towards the company’s strong operating margin, its healthy cash position and operating cash flow – as well as its growth prospects in the longer term.
The business has a large and diverse sales footprint that includes exposure to cloud services, cybersecurity, personal computing, video games and, most recently, artificial intelligence (AI).
Microsoft has confirmed its investment into OpenAI, the maker of the revolutionary ChatGPT tool, allowing the tech giant to remain as the exclusive cloud provider for the tool.
It is still in its early days but given the multi-pronged growth opportunities, as well as its resilient balance sheet and business model, Microsoft will still be a great holding in any portfolio.
4. UnitedHealth Group
UnitedHealth Group Inc (NYSE: UNH) is the largest health insurance company in the US.
Given the volatile market, the health insurance segment will offer some stability and long-term growth for investors.
The prospects are also positive as the UnitedHealth Group operates in an ageing population.
In the US, the percentage of people who are older than 65 is expected to increase to 21.6% by 2040 as compared to 16% in 2019.
During its Q4 FY2022 earnings, UnitedHealth Group’s earnings of US$82.79 billion beat Wall Street’s estimates of US$82.53 billion.
The company’s share price is also trading at a relatively fair valuation at 22 times its trailing PE level while it offers a dividend yield of 1.4%.
Finally, there’s Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX), which is one of the most well-known coffee and cold beverage franchises on the planet.
While the company struggled from the COVID-19 lockdowns, the reopening of the economy and international borders should boost sales.
In fact, despite limited mobility in China stemming from the COVID-zero policy, Starbucks’ net revenue and earnings have edged higher during its Q1 FY2023.
One of the key factors that has driven earnings is its rewards programme.
Starbucks’ active US rewards membership surged 15% over the year-ago period to 30.4 million.
This has been critical to the company’s growth because active members spend more money, and more frequently with the company.
Last month, Starbucks launched a new line of olive-oil infused coffee, known as the “Oleato” line.
The “Oleato” line is likely to be Howard Schultz, the interim CEO of Starbucks’ last launch as boss as he is stepping down from his position and passing the baton to Laxman Narasimhan, who will be the next CEO of Starbucks from 1 April.
I believe that the shift away from the pandemic will benefit Starbucks and, given the aggressive brand positioning and push for its rewards programme, I expect to see growth return – especially in China.
As someone who loves coffee, it is hard to say no to Starbucks as it attempts to jolt the coffee market with its biggest product launch in years.
Building resilience in a volatile market
The bear market in the past has reminded us of the importance of a resilient portfolio.
Instead of focusing on growth stocks, we need to have diversified names in our portfolio that can withstand a period of recession.
With BofA, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, UnitedHealth Group, and Starbucks, I believe investors have a strong foundation to build on while tapping the growth opportunities that emerge.
Disclaimer: ProsperUs Investment Coach Billy Toh doesn’t own shares of any companies mentioned.
Billy is passionate about the capital market and believes in investing for the long haul. Prior to this, he was an economist at RHB Investment Bank, covering Thailand and Philippines market. He also worked as a financial journalist at The Edge Malaysia and has experience working with an asset management firm. Aside from the capital market, Billy loves a good conversation over a cup of coffee, is a fitness enthusiast and a tech geek.


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|By PR Newswire||
|August 13, 2014 02:11 PM EDT||
PHOENIX, Aug. 13, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Web technology and development company, TechMoguls, unveiled the launch of "Floristopia.com" today at the start of SAF's (Society of American Florists) 130th Annual Convention in Marco Island, Florida. There have been many major developments in the floral industry recently, but perhaps none as significant as the launch of Floristopia.com, an innovative website designed to help consumers connect directly with the perfect local florist. The largest and most comprehensive florist directory and review site online, Floristopia.com features more than 35,000 local flower shops and wholesale florists throughout the United States and Canada.
Shopping local is an immensely popular movement that grows stronger every day. People want to support their local businesses and have a connection, a relationship, with the vendors in their towns. Floristopia.com supports the shop local movement by directly connecting consumers with local florists. The concept is simple: consumers can go to www.floristopia.com and search for local florists by entering a specific city, state, or zip code in the search navigation. With two clicks, consumers are able to access all pertinent information on local florists within their geographic search criteria. What makes the website unique is the vast array of technology and features that it offers to both consumers and florists. The website features a detailed landing page for each florist including pictures and videos as well as full social integration with Facebook and Twitter. In addition, consumers can save their favorite listings, post ratings and reviews, redeem "Deals" and more.
"We feel this type of service is long overdue in the floral industry," said Mr. Denham, a TechMoguls founding partner. "Our goal is to improve the consumer experience when it comes to helping consumers find a local florist in any given city." The service is free for both florists and consumers, although TechMoguls plans on florists paying for enhanced listing features over time. "Floristopia.com has real potential to change the way people buy flowers. We are excited to see how this new tool will affect the floral industry and where it could take us in the future," Denham further added.
For more information about Floristopia.com, please visit www.floristopia.com.
TechMoguls is an entrepreneurial web technology company specializing in disruptive innovation with international offices in the United States and Mexico. For more information or partnership inquiries, please visit www.techmoguls.com
Media Contact: Eileen Watters, Tech Moguls, 800-609-8968, [email protected]
News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com
SOURCE Tech Moguls
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SYS-CON Events announced today that MathFreeOn will exhibit at the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. MathFreeOn is Software as a Service (SaaS) used in Engineering and Math education. Write scripts and solve math problems online. MathFreeOn provides online courses for beginners or amateurs who have difficulties in writing scripts. In accordance with various mathematical topics, there are more tha...
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Governments around the world are adopting Safe Harbor privacy provisions to protect customer data from leaving sovereign territories. Increasingly, global companies are required to create new instances of their server clusters in multiple countries to keep abreast of these new Safe Harbor laws. Is it worth it? In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Adam Rogers, Managing Director of Anexia, Inc., will discuss how to keep your data legal and still stay in business.
Oct. 22, 2016 11:30 AM EDT Reads: 1,411
@ThingsExpo has been named the Top 5 Most Influential Internet of Things Brand by Onalytica in the ‘The Internet of Things Landscape 2015: Top 100 Individuals and Brands.' Onalytica analyzed Twitter conversations around the #IoT debate to uncover the most influential brands and individuals driving the conversation. Onalytica captured data from 56,224 users. The PageRank based methodology they use to extract influencers on a particular topic (tweets mentioning #InternetofThings or #IoT in this ...
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AYR Strategies: U.S. Vertically Integrated Multi-State Operator Cannabis Venture Makes Public Market Debut
First billion-dollar recreational cannabis-focused company lists on the NEO Exchange
TORONTO, May 27, 2019–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NEO is pleased to announce that it has granted Cannabis Strategies Acquisition Corp. (“CSA”) final approval of its qualifying transaction, and the subsequent company, AYR Strategies Inc. (“AYR”) — a vertically integrated Multi-State Operator in the U.S. cannabis sector — began trading today under the symbols NEO: AYR.A, AYR.RT and AYR.WT. AYR is the first recreational cannabis-focused company with an enterprise value over a billion dollars to list on NEO.
As part of its qualifying transaction, CSA acquired five distinct cannabis businesses operating in Nevada and Massachusetts consisting of three cannabis cultivation and production facilities and eight dispensaries.
With today’s five acquisitions, AYR begins its next phase as a vertically integrated Multi-State Operator (M.S.O) and a leader in the U.S. cannabis market. AYR will aggressively seek additional growth both organically and through accretive external opportunities.
Jonathan Sandelman, CEO, AYR (Formerly: Cannabis Strategies Acquisition Corp.)
We chose to partner with NEO because of its streamlined, disclosure-based approach to listings in the U.S. cannabis space, combined with its stringent senior listing requirements that are critical to maintaining investor confidence. We accessed the Canadian and international capital necessary to complete these strategic acquisitions and we look forward to creating further value for our shareholders. Today we stand in a strong competitive position within a very attractive industry.
CSA completed its initial public offering as a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation (SPAC) in December 2017, the first SPAC to list on NEO. The SPAC qualifying transaction was closed on May 24, 2019 and further demonstrates how SPAC vehicles can be successful at the right time, in the right sector and on the


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Russia WTO Entry Likely to Affect Polymer Market in the Country
CHEMMONITOR.COM – Russia’s WTO accession is likely to entail losses in the domestic polymer market.
Import duties will be reduced from 10% and 20% to about 6.6% in 2013-2014. New polymer facilities are expected to be introduced in the Russian market in 2017.
From 2013 till 2017, Russia will give a part of the market to other countries.
In 2011, consumption of polyethylene and polypropylene in the Russian market exceeded the supply by roughly 16.6% and 15.3% respectively.


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With Publishing Group Purchase, PMMI Expands Member Benefits
Build it or buy it? That’s the question PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, faced when it decided to expand its digital presence. The answer hinged on the group’s ability to find a complementary partner.
There was no doubt that PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, would expand its digital offerings for members—that was determined during a strategic planning session last spring. How it would implement the digital strategy was a different question.
“As we considered how to build a digital platform, it became clear there were two paths to choose from: build it or buy it,” PMMI President and CEO Charles D. Yuska said in an email exchange with Associations Now. “Building a platform would be a significant undertaking, requiring considerable staff time and financial resources. On the other hand, purchasing a proven platform gives us significantly greater speed to market and a faster potential return on our financial investment.”
While exploring its options, PMMI identified Summit Media Group, a well-known publications and events producer in the packaging and industrial automation industry, as a model of what it hoped to accomplish.
“It rose to the top as an example of a successful digital enterprise,” Yuska said. “Our executive committee realized our two organizations strongly complement each other, and Summit’s partners agreed.”
At its annual meeting earlier this month, PMMI announced it had entered into an agreement to purchase Summit Media Group, Inc. The sale, expected to close in late October, will bring Summit’s staff into the fold, along with its many publications. PMMI’s editorial staff—which produces PMT magazine—will be integrated into Summit’s titles, according to Yuska.
“Summit is a well-known, highly respected publisher, with print publications and a significant digital presence that truly complements PMMI’s strategic plan,” PMMI Chairman Bill Crist said in a statement. “[Our] vision is to create opportunities where businesses and people along the packaging and processing supply chain can convene to network, problem-solve, and do business. The robust platform Summit brings to the table will enhance our ability to do that.”
The goals for the new platform are threefold: increase attendance at PMMI tradeshows, increase and diversify revenue, and enhance the organization’s status as an authority and thought leader in the industry.
“Our focus is always on finding solutions that will support all of our key audiences,” Yuska said. “We didn’t go into the process thinking about acquiring a publishing house. We went in thinking about supporting our strategic plan, our members, their customers, and our industry. We had to ask ourselves: Who are we serving, what do they need, and how can PMMI best serve them?”


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May 26, 2010
Robert Dotson, president and CEO of T-Mobile USA, has informed that he plans to leave the company in May 2011, after 15 years of service with T-Mobile. His designated successor is Philipp Humm, an experienced DT executive and former CEO of T-Mobile Deutschland.
June 11, 2009
Palm has appointed Jon Rubinstein, the man credited with delivering Apple's iPod and iMac, as its new CEO and chairman.
He replaces Ed Colligan, who is stepping down after sixteen years leading the company. The executive changes come just a few days after Palm launched its Pre smartphone.
March 19, 2009
European 2D barcode leader MTag has set up a US sister company as part of its expansion plans.
It has appointed William "Chip" Hoffman as CEO of the new venture, Mobile Tag, Inc.
Headquartered in Atlanta, GA, Hoffman will head a global mobile marketing campaign for the company's mobile barcode technologies and services.
March 10, 2009
Cast your eyes over most office desks and something they have in common is a fixed-line telephone - at least for now.
Ivar Plahte, CEO and co-founder of OnRelay, has no doubt that mobile PBX is the future - with smartphones increasingly replacing desktop phones to become the sole business phone.
January 15, 2009
Apple COO Tim Cook is take over the company's day-to-day running after it was announced that Steve Jobs is to take a six month medical leave of absence.
Having previously stepped into the CEO post when Jobs was treated for pancreatic cancer, there is no doubt about his leadership abilities.
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Bully for Amazon (AMZN) .
The Internet retailer posted a 24% jump in
to $177 million, or 41 cents a share, compared with $143 million, or 34 cents a share, in the same quarter of 2008.
Nice to see consumers still shelling out for electronics -- global sales rose 38% in that category, which includes other general merchandise. Sales of books, CDs and DVDs are gaining at a somewhat slower 7% pace, but gaining nonetheless.
Consumers in North America -- where the company generates a little more than half its revenue -- seemed especially eager to make purchases online, with a 21% increase in sales for the U.S. and Canada. Sales in the U.K., Germany, France and China gained 15%.
You may recall that big box rival
and posted a decline in earnings to $570 million, or $1.35 a share, for the fiscal quarter that ended Feb. 28, compared with $737 million or $1.71 a share, the year before.
Among Web peers,
drop almost 80% to $118 million, or 8 cents a share, from $537 million, or 11 cents a share.
profit looked good on the surface, with earnings of $1.42 billion, or $4.49 per share in the
, compared with $1.31 billion, or $4.12 per share, the year before. But it's hard to get excited when most of the improvement came from cost cutting instead of growth, as demonstrated by the drop in net revenue to $4.07 billion from $4.08 billion.
The only thing more outrageous than Amazon kicking Google's behind in the first quarter, is Amazon's outlook for continued growth in revenue of between 6% and 17% in the second quarter while Google CEO Eric Schmidt cautioned that the current economic climate "remains tough."
The big difference is that Google gets its money from advertisers while Amazon sells straight to consumers. Seems advertisers have been a little stingy with their budgets even though the consumer is still showing signs of life.
For my part, I'm going to take the Amazon results as a sign that things are looking up.
Call me an optimist, but I like Amazon's upbeat comments better than Google's cautious tone.
Hall is the editor of
. Previously, he served as deputy editor and chief innovation officer at
The Orange County Register
and as a news manager at
in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Washington, D.C. As a reporter, he covered business and financial markets, worked in both print and television in the U.S. and Europe, and conducted in-depth investigative coverage at
in Fort Wayne, Ind. His work also has been published in a variety of newspapers including
The Wall Street Journal
The New York Times
International Herald Tribune
. Hall received a bachelor�s degree in journalism and political science from The Ohio State University and has taken graduate management science courses at Boston University.


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Hot Diamonds sees huge year-on-year growth for summer trading period.
Hot Diamonds has reported its independent retailer sales are up 118% year-on-year for the summer trading period from May to July 2014.
Hot Diamonds head of commerce, Adryan Cresswell, explained: “We are very pleased with the performance of our independents channel over the summer. We are seeing exceptional growth of more than 100% month after month which has been delivered by two factors; very strong Emozioni sell-out and re-orders, and a great reception to our latest Hot Diamonds collections from our retail network."
Following this positive sales period, Hot Diamonds is looking ahead to an equally successful September, with August already looking strong and continuing the brand’s upward trajectory.
The brand will also be launching a furniture offer for Emozioni – its interchangeable coin concept brand.


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Raining become a blessing for some of us, as AirAsia India has introduced a promotional offer under which all-in fares start as low as Rs. 438. Officials said that it's a raining discounts.
AirAsia's special offer is valid on bookings made till 9th August, for the travel between 11th August 2014 and 29th January 2015 and the promotional fare is subject to availability of seats.
As per the offer, fares from Chennai-to-Bangalore flights start from Rs. 438. Ticket rate from Bangalore to Chennai, Goa and Kochi range onwards of Rs. 635. On Kochi to Bangalore and Goa to Bangalore routes, fares start from Rs. 990.
AirAsia India will start flights from Bangalore to Jaipur and Bangalore to Chandigarh from 5th September. This would be the budget carrier's first push into north India and presently it operates flights on Kochi-Bangalore-Chennai-Goa routes.
Under another promotional offer, the Bangalore-Jaipur and Bangalore-Chandigarh routes ticket rate start from an all-in Rs. 3,999.
CEO of AirAsia India, Mittu Chandilya, tweeted that the airline has not yet finanlised the next route expansion.
"Excited about Chandigarh and Jaipur. Not done yet-off finalizing next set of destinations," he tweeted.
AirAsia India, a three-way venture between Malaysia-based AirAsia Berhad, Tata Group and investment firm Telestra Tradeplace, had launched its debut flight on 12th June.
However, other Indian carriers also had come up with promotional offers. Jet Airways had launched a pan-India sales scheme, offering fares as low as Rs. 1,499 on all its economy class domestic networks on 31st July.
Moreover, SpiceJet, Indigo and GoAir had rolled out another sale offer with fares starting from Rs. 1,699 for a limited period on domestic routes.


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Around the Web, Books, Celebration, Collecting, Conventions, Events, Fantasy, Regular Feature, Sci-Fi, Star Wars Books, Toys | Leave a comment
Here is this week’s Around the Web news roundup of Star Wars and beyond.
- StarWars.com has released a new except for Aftermath: Empire’s End by Chuck Wendig which will be out February 21st and will concluded the Aftermath trilogy.
- Del Rey’s Star Wars Facebook page teased a picture that seems to indicate the new Thrawn novel will have blue page edging. Pretty cool.


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Designer Marc Jacobs has told of how his long-time photographer Juergen Teller flat out refused to take part in Miley Cyrus' new campaign for the high end fashion chain. A long-time photographer of numerous fashion shoots for Jacobs, Teller apparently wanted absolutely nothing to do with Cyrus or the new campaign and stepped down from the projet before it had begun.
Miley and Marc had been planning the collaboration for some time
"Secret's out, @MileyCyrus star in the MJ SS14 Campaign shot by David Sims!" a tweet from the fashion chain read on Wednesday, 8 January, in the company's fist announcement of the collaboration. Since then Jacobs has spoken with Women's Wear Daily to discuss the new spring look and to also mention Teller's refusal to work alongside the 'Wrecking Ball' singer.
Continue reading: Marc Jacobs Photographer Refuses To Work On Miley Cyrus Campaign


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The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has praised Notore for bringing fertiliser to rural farmers.
He spoke during the opening of the Al-Yuma Ventures state-of-the-art warehouse in Jigawa State and launch of the Notore Small Pack Distribution Enhancement (SPaDE) project.
The Minister said the Federal Government would continue to assist agro-allied industries to contribute to the Nigeria’s agricultural growth and economic development.
Adesina, represented by a director in his ministry, Alhaji Yahaya Tanko, described Notore’s innovative ideas as formidable steps in moving the nation’s agriculture forward.
He said the innovation brought about by the intervention of firms, such as Notore would remain unquantifiable, considering its role in bringing fertiliser and other farm input closer to local farmers.
The Managing Director , Chief Executive Officer of Notore, Mr. Onajite Okoloko, said the firm was set up to develop the capacity of over two million farmers across the country and expose them to modern farming techniques between this year and 2015.
He said Notore as an ago-allied firm committed to making its input available to grassroots farmers across the country.
“The Notore fertiliser plant is the only urea fertiliser plant in Sub-Saharan Africa. We produce urea and blended NPK fertiliser products. We are also proud to say that we operate an effective and world-class supply chain structure with over 100 distribution partners reaching 1.8 million farmers across Nigeria,” Okoloko said.
Describing how the initiative being launched began, he said Alhaji Ali Yusuf, a well-known businessman and Notore partner in 2011, while seeking more profitable business opportunities, realised that a gap existed in the fertiliser market.
The managing director explained that Yusuf saw how local farmers lacked quality and affordable agricultural input, especially fertiliser and seeds, and decided to register as a Notore distribution partner.
Since joining the Notore family, his sales volume increased from about 5,000 metric tonnes in the first year to over 25,000 metric tonnes later.


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'Survivor' 'Kentucky Joe' hooking up with fans in Kidron
By BOBBY WARRENStaff WriterKIDRON Fans of CBS' popular "Survivor" series will want to journey to Kidron on July 10 to hear "Kentucky Joe," one of the contestants from "Survivor: The Australian Outback."Rodger "Kentucky Joe" Bingham will speak about "Surviving in the Real World" as part of Lehman's Coming Back Home celebration.So, how does Bingham get to Kidron from Australia?Well, Galen Lehman, the company's president, is a fan of the show. One morning, he was walking through the store and thought he recognized the former "Survivor" contestant, he said. Lehman was trying to get up the nerve to ask if the customer was indeed Kentucky Joe, and Lehman was sure once he saw Bingham's wife."Are you Kentucky Joe?" he asked."Yes I am."As Bingham relayed the story of the encounter, he seemed surprised Lehman recognized him.While the show hooked Lehman, he said he did not like how Richard Hatch, the winner of the first "Survivor" series, played the game in a manipulative manner.By contrast, Lehman said Kentucky Joe displayed a level of integrity and moral character Lehman liked."Right from the beginning I was impressed with his integrity," Lehman said. "Because of his rural upbringing and working on a farm, he knew what to do. He knew how to butcher a hog and chicken."On the show, Bingham exhibited traits not unlike the typical Lehman's customer. So, Lehman said Bingham would be a great customer and would introduce him to the store if the two ever met.When they did meet, it surprised Lehman to discover Bingham had been a customer of the store for years.Bingham said he visits Holmes County every year, and he always visits Lehman's. When he speaks at the event, Bingham said he will talk about his rural upbringing "things the Amish do on a daily basis" and how it helped him last as long as he did.The former "Survivor" contestant will show a video clip of some of the show's highlights and talk about how he survived for 36 of the 42 days. He will talk about how he was selected and some of the things that never made it on the program.Another topic will be the one luxury item he brought with him as he traveled more than 9,000 miles away from home: a Bible. Bingham has served as an elder with Crittenden (Ky.) Christian Church.Lehman's Coming Back Home is in its fifth year, said Glenda Lehman Ervin. It started out as a way to bring the company's catalog customers together for a special day and see the store, she said."So many of our catalog customers did not know we had a store," Ervin said. "We decided to specifically invite them to the store and have a party."The first year, Lehman said about eight people attended."It was a slow start," he said. "But, it has grown every year, and I am hopeful this will be the biggest yet."What's interesting is that about all who came the first year have been back every year."The event now draws attendees from about 10 to 12 states, Ervin said.The day will begin with a free breakfast from 8-10 a.m. From 11 a.m.-1 p.m. barbecue chicken meals will be served. Cost is $8. Bingham will speak at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10. Dinner in Amish homes will begin at 6 p.m. Cost is $20.For more information, call toll-free 1-888-438-5346.Reporter Bobby Warren can be reached at (330) 287-1638 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.org.


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If the discussion that ensued at today's "Argue the Future 2: Return of the Future" panel was any indication, the battle for the living room will define the coming years. This isn't a new concept; we've spent a lot of time looking at how a wide swath of companies big and small are fighting for control of the most important screen in your home, but the deluge of awe-inspring 4K TVs with no native content helped bring this discussion to the forefront. The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, Lytro's Eric Cheng, and Hulu's Andy Forssell spent the better part of the hour breaking this conflict apart along with our own Joshua Topolsky and Nilay Patel.
"Everyone is trying to revolutionize TV," Mossberg said. "It looks to a tech company like low-hanging fruit. The software is bad, and the integration with the wider internet world is bad, so it's low-hanging fruit. What is the obstacle?" For starters, it's the "crazy rights landscape" that makes it nigh-impossible for any one service to have all of the content consumers want. "I'm waving money in the air and the rights structure is preventing me from having [what I want]," Patel said while discussing the hoops he has to jump through just to watch the Green Bay Packers every year. "I think not capitalizing on what is obvious demand is bad business."
"Everyone is trying to revolutionize TV."
Of course, it's not clear that the cable providers and the rights-holders are hurting — at least not yet. "[Cable companies] look at multi-channel subs and they've hung in around 100 million homes," Forssell said. "It wavers a little bit, but it hasn't dropped. So far it hasn't hit the bottom line." That leads to the question of whether "normal" consumers even know or care — after all, we're in the middle of a content revolution. "It seems to me like TV is better than ever," Topolsky said. Mossberg quickly agreed, saying that "this is the golden age of TV."
Who wants to pay for an expensive cable plan that serves them ads?
Despite the quality content available, there's still a growing feeling that consumers will eventually tire of paying for content they don't want. " I hated having this expensive [cable service] that I paid for every month that served me ads, said Cheng when asked why he cut the cable cord years ago. And if a recent Verge forum thread on how to watch TV was any indication, cable boxes are playing second fiddle to the main over-the-top services fighting for living room dominance. "Even the people who buy the cable are thinking to themselves, 'this is secondary to what I see on the internet or I get distributed online,'" said Patel. "That is the biggest danger to the cable industry."
The industry's push toward 4K TVs could be the spark that ignites these issues in the very near future, despite the fact that it's not at all clear how fast consumers will adopt this new — and expensive — technology. "There is a part of me that feels just a little bit like we've been burned by things before — like 3D," said Topolsky. Despite that, there's little doubt the TV industry will force 4K sets to consumers, which will force the issue of content distribution to the forefront once again. "Having the sets in peoples homes is what creates demand for the content," said Patel.
"Having the sets in peoples homes is what creates demand for the content."
Once that starts happening, it'll be a mad rush as providers battle to be the first to offer programming for these new sets. "As people get their 4K televisions, it'll create demand for the content," Patel said, "and the online services that can provide that content faster than the cable companies will begin to seriously challenge cable." Sony CEO Kaz Hirai expressed similar sentiments to Topolsky in an earlier interview, saying that the company wants to drive the expansion of broadband to help facilitate the delivery of 4K content — without better connections, 4K sets will likely be short on native video.
While this race to 4K could likely be the defining battle of the next few years, it doesn't have to be the only way. Mossberg talked at length about the many issues with current TV like fragmented content availability and the need for multiple devices, and finished his thought by saying that improved features "will be more important over the next three years than doubling the resolution of Blu-ray." Sounds a bit like the kind of mentality Apple might take if it was planning to release its own TV set, doesn't it?


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The NFL preseason kicks into gear this week for the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Chargers as they face off at State Farm Stadium on Thursday. It’s the first action of the preseason for both squads.
The game starts at 10 p.m. ET and will be televised on various local channels for in-market viewers (ABC in Los Angeles, CBS in San Diego, NBC in Phoenix) and on NFL Network for out-of-market viewers. If you don’t have cable, you can watch a live stream of the game on your computer, phone or streaming device via one of the following live-TV streaming services:
PS Vue — which doesn’t require an actual PlayStation console to sign up or watch — offers four different live-TV channel packages. All include NBC, Fox, ABC, CBS and MyTV (all live in select markets; view channels in your area), while NFL Network is in the upper three bundles.
You can start a free five-day trial of PS Vue right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the Cardinals vs Chargers on your computer via the PS Vue website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation (3 or 4), or other supported device via the PS Vue app.
If you can’t watch live, PS Vue comes with cloud DVR.
NBC, Fox, CBS, CW (all live in select markets; view channels in your area) and NFL Network are among the 95-plus live TV channels included in the main FuboTV bundle, which is largely tailored towards sports. ABC is not available, so fans in Los Angeles will want to use a different option.
You can start a free seven-day trial of FuboTV right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the Cardinals vs Chargers on your computer via the FuboTV website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, or other supported device via the FuboTV app.
If you can’t watch live, FuboTV comes with 30 hours of cloud DVR space, as well as a 72-hour look-back feature, which allows you to watch the game on-demand within three days of its conclusion, even if you don’t record it.
In addition to a Netflix-like on-demand streaming library, Hulu also offers a bundle of 60-plus live TV channels, including Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS & CW (all live in select markets; view channels in your area). NFL Network is not included, and Fox isn’t available live in Phoenix, so this is more of an option for in-market viewers who aren’t in Phoenix. Those who are in Phoenix will want to use PlayStation Vue or FuboTV.
You can sign up for “Hulu with Live TV” right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the Cardinals vs Chargers on your computer via the Hulu website, or on your phone (Android and iPhone supported), tablet, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Echo Show, or other streaming device via the Hulu app.
If you can’t watch live, Hulu With Live TV comes with 50 hours of cloud DVR space, as well as the option to upgrade to “Enhanced Cloud DVR,” which gives you 200 hours of space and the ability to fast-forward through commercials.
If the game is on CBS in your area (as it is in San Diego, Las Vegas and Honolulu), and you don’t need any other channels, Amazon Prime’s CBS channel is a great option.
If you have Amazon Prime or want to start a free 30-day trial of Amazon Prime, you can watch all live and on-demand CBS content via the CBS All-Access Amazon Channel, which comes with a 7-day free trial.
Once you’re signed up for both Amazon Prime and the CBS channel, you can then watch a live stream of the Cardinals vs Chargers on your computer via the Amazon website, or you can watch on your phone (Android and iPhone compatible), tablet, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 or other streaming device via the Amazon Video app.
If You’re in Canada: DAZN
Viewers in Canada can watch every preseason, regular season and postseason NFL game live online via DAZN, a digital streaming service that also includes NFL Network, NFL RedZone, Premier League soccer, Champions League soccer, boxing and other live sports for $20 per month or $150 per year.
You can sign up for a free one-month trial of DAZN right here, and you can then watch a live stream of the Cardinals vs Chargers and every other NFL game on your computer via DAZN.com, or on your phone, tablet, smart TV, Roku, Xbox One, or other streaming device via the DAZN app.
Cardinals vs. Chargers Preview
The biggest storyline of the matchup — and possibly the entire preseason — is seeing how No. 1 overall pick Kyler Murray will perform on the NFL level. Murray, who was scrutinized for his height in the draft, is expected to start, although it’s uncertain how many snaps he’ll see.
“I’m looking forward to having fun,” Murray said. “It’s going to be different suiting up in a Cardinals jersey. Not playing for a school, you’re representing a state.”
Arizona finished last season 3-13, earning them the right to the No. 1 overall pick with the worst record in the league. The team hired college offensive guru Kliff Kingsbury, 39, as their head coach in the offseason. It was a polarizing decision considering Kingsbury was just fired at Texas Tech following a losing season.
Arizona’s remaining preseason schedule includes the Raiders (Aug. 18), Vikings (Aug. 24) and Broncos (Aug. 29).
The Chargers have been dealing with the holdout of running back Melvin Gordon, who wants a new contract and has requested a trade. He has yet to attend camp, so in his absence, Austin Ekeler and Justin Jackson are battling for the top RB spot on the depth chart.
Veteran quarterback Philip Rivers is not going to play for the Chargers, and fans will also have to wait a little longer to see the team’s top two picks in defensive tackle Jerry Tillery and safety Nasir Adderley.
Despite that, head coach Anthony Lynn has said some of his starters will see significant reps this month in the preseason.
“Not every starter is going to sit in preseason,” Lynn said Tuesday. “I got to get the guys what they need to get ready for Week 1, and every player’s different.”
The Charger’s remaining preseason schedule includes the Saints (Aug. 18), Seahawks (Aug. 24) and 49ers (Aug. 29).
The preseason kicked off last Thursday with the Hall of Fame Game, pitting the Denver Broncos against the Atlanta Falcons. The Broncos won the plodding preseason tilt 14-10, scoring a late touchdown to record the victory.
For most teams, the preseason consists of four preseason games — the Falcons and Broncos being the exception that play five. Starters mostly see limited reps in the preseason, with playing time peaking in the third game. The games are meant for teams to evaluate talent deeper down on the depth chart and dwindle their rosters to 53 players.
The exhibition games run through Aug. 29, with the kickoff to the NFL’s 100th season taking place on Thursday, Sept. 5 with NFC North rivals Green Bay and Chicago facing off.
Disclaimer: Heavy Inc. has affiliate relationships with various streaming content providers and may receive a commission if you sign up for a service via a link on this page.


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And just like that, humanity draws one step closer to the singularity, the moment when the machines grow so advanced that humans become obsolete: A robot has learned to autonomously assemble an Ikea chair without throwing anything or cursing the family dog.
MEDAMAHANUWARA, Sri Lanka — Past the end of a remote mountain road, down a rutted dirt track, in a concrete house that lacked running water but bristled with smartphones, 13 members of an extended family were glued to Facebook. And they were furious.
Facebook has been under fire for its handling of personal data, but what companies around the world can do with that data is even more frightening.
Production had been halted for much of last week in Tesla’s car factory in Fremont, California, and its battery factory near Clark, Nevada. In a Tuesday note to employees, CEO Elon Musk said that the pause was necessary to lay the groundwork for higher production levels in the coming weeks.
Before you upgrade your next iPhone, you may want to consider a $29 battery instead. Not only will the choice save you money, it could help save the planet.
Smartphone owners who want to learn how to code can learn the fundamentals with Google’s new app, “Grasshopper,” which launched Wednesday. The app is Codeacademy meets DuoLingo.
You can make America great again and beat China. It’s up to you. China is well on its way to becoming the renewable energy superpower of the future. We can still come from behind and take the lead — if you make it a national priority.


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Today’s must read MSM piece is the WSJ discussion of Inflation:
“The pace of consumer price increases in the U.S. is quickening after being dormant for months. But a tug of war between the prices of goods and the prices of services, playing out beneath the surface, could keep inflation from becoming the worry it is in China, Europe and many emerging markets.”
Prices rose 1.6% in January 2011 vs 2010 — the biggest increase in eight months. The key has been commodities — gasoline, cotton, wheat, coffee, and oil are all higher.
Labor, on the other hand is not. Wages are flat, unemployment is stubbornly high, and hence, prices for Services are flat to lower. That is keeping a lid on inflation.
Hence, the dueling deflation versus hyper-inflation commentaries:
“Soaring commodities costs world-wide are pushing up prices for many goods, while a slowly recuperating U.S. economy, soft housing market and a persistently high unemployment rate are holding down prices for U.S. services.
Goods prices were up 2.2% from a year earlier, paced by jumps in food and energy prices, according to the Labor Department’s January consumer-price index, and are rising faster than they did before the recession. But services prices were up only 1.2% from a year earlier, far below the 3.4% inflation rate registered for services between 2000 and 2008.
The opposing pull of prices for goods and services could have a big effect on the course of U.S. inflation. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is betting that rising prices for goods like gas and food will not spread into the broader economy. He and many private forecasters do not expect the U.S. to see the kind of rising inflation now plaguing China, India and other parts of the world.
Goods inflation has outstripped services inflation for long stretches since mid-2007, something that hadn’t happened since the 1970s. For most of the last 30 years, goods prices had been held down, in part, by cheap imports from low-wage countries like China. But recently, China and other developing markets have become huge consumers of commodities, which is putting upward pressure on American prices for many globally traded goods.”
Well worth reading in its entirety.
Split in Economy Keeps Lid on Prices
JON HILSENRATH And JUSTIN LAHART
WSJ, February 18, 2011


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Handheld device makers Palm and Handspring both strongly denied on Tuesday that they are in merger talks, the day after rumours to the contrary pushed up the stock prices for both companies.
"It's not true. It's a rumour and we don't comment on rumours," said Lorraine Legros, a Palm spokeswoman in the company's Paris office.
"We aren't in talks to acquire Palm or to be acquired by Palm," said a Handspring spokesperson in the UK who asked not to be named.
Talk of a merger between the PDA (personal digital assistant) makers began on Monday after a report in the Wall Street Journal newspaper, quoting "people familiar with the situation", said that merger talks were held between Palm and Handspring last year in a "war room" scenario. Though those particular merger talks were dropped -- with both companies currently in the middle of restructuring plans and new products in development -- the possibility of a merger cannot be dismissed, the WSJ said.
The report also quoted various Wall Street money managers and analysts as hoping that the resignation of Palm's chief executive officer, Carl Yankowski, at the beginning of the month could possibly pave the way for the company to merge with its rival.
By the end of Monday on the Nasdaq stock exchange, Palm was up $US0.44, or 13 per cent, to close at $3.87 per share, while Handspring was up $1.41, or 35 per cent, to close at $5.41 per share.


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By David Trainer, Kyle Guske II and Sam McBride
Luxury fitness company Peloton Interactive is expected to IPO on Thursday. At a price range of $26-$29 per share, the company plans to sell up to $1.1 billion of shares with an expected market cap of around $7.6 billion. At the midpoint of the IPO price range, Peloton currently earns our Unattractive rating.
Peloton’s /zigman2/quotes/208035743/composite PTON -7.00% suspect accounting and outrageous claims about its total addressable market suggest a WeWork -like perception of reality. The business is moving farther away from profitability with no realistic path to achieve the cash flows implied by its valuation.
Mind the (non) GAAP
Peloton was founded in 2012 and launched its signature stationary bike in 2014. The company has sold 577,000 products (mostly its bike, but also the treadmill it launched in 2018) and has 511,000 subscribers to its streaming fitness classes.
Despite its rapid growth, the company has made no progress toward profitability. Its economic earnings , the true cash flows of the business, declined from -$54 million in 2018 to -$226 million in 2019 (Peloton’s fiscal year runs through June 30).
Peloton tries to mask the extent of its losses by highlighting adjusted Ebitda , every unprofitable company’s favorite metric. This metric excludes $90 million in stock-based compensation expense, $22 million in depreciation and amortization, $12 million in litigation expense, and $7 million in construction costs related to its new corporate headquarters. In total, Peloton’s adjusted Ebitda excludes $124 million (14% of revenue) in expenses, while also ignoring the company’s cost of capital.
More often than not, we’re seeing private companies and investors operate as if capital has no costs.
Figure 1 shows that Peloton’s adjusted Ebitda understates both the size and the increase of the company’s losses.
In addition to adjusted Ebitda, Peloton uses two other misleading non-GAAP metrics:
• Subscription contribution margin: Normally, contribution margin refers to the operating profits of a specific segment. In this case, however, Peloton’s subscription contribution margin refers to the gross profit of its subscription offering, excluding stock-based compensation and depreciation and amortization expense. As a result, the company shows its subscription contribution margin rising from 47.5% in 2018 to 50.8% in 2019. Without excluding those items, subscription gross margin declined from 43.3% to 42.7% over the same time.
• Average net monthly connected fitness churn: Instead of disclosing its churn rate on an annual basis, as most companies do, Peloton discloses it monthly. The company’s 0.65% monthly churn (which sounds very low), annualizes to about 8% churn, which is not nearly as impressive. In addition, 11% of its subscribers are on prepaid subscriptions, which means they have no option to cancel. Peloton’s true annual churn rate for subscribers that are eligible for cancellation is probably close to double digits.
Red flag from the auditors
Investors need to take Peloton’s GAAP numbers with a grain of salt. The company disclosed a material weakness in its internal control over financial reporting as a risk factor in its S-1 . This disclosure means Peloton didn’t have adequate technology and processes in place to ensure the accuracy of its financial statements and increases the odds that Peloton need to restate its financials in the future.
As an emerging growth company , Peloton is not required to have its auditor give an opinion on its internal controls. We applaud the company for disclosing this risk factor in its S-1, but investors should know that this disclosure is voluntary and could be eliminated in future filings even if the problem persists.
Lack of disclosure raises more red flags
Peloton omits certain details that are important for investors to understand the growth potential of the business. In particular, the company doesn’t break out sales numbers for its new treadmill, which it launched in 2018.
The two important facts Peloton discloses about the treadmill are:
1. It’s responsible for a decline in the company’s product gross margin from 44% in 2018 to 43% in 2019.
2. It caused the company’s inventory balance to increase from $25 million in 2018 to $137 million in 2019, a 440% increase.
The fact that Peloton apparently has around $100 million worth of treadmills in inventory, and that it’s earning inferior margins on those it does sell, suggests that the launch of its treadmill has not been successful. We can’t know for sure without more disclosure, but if Peloton was selling lots of treadmills it would probably be quick to tell us.


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Nio Inc NIO said Tuesday that a worldwide shortage of semiconductors means it will make fewer vehicles in the second quarter, CNBC reported Tuesday.
What Happened: Production levels will have to be cut down to 7,500 units a month in Q2 after touching 10,000 vehicles in February, the company’s CEO William Li said during the latest quarterly earnings call.
The executive said that manufacturing could ramp up again in July for a total capacity of 150,000 units per single shift. There is a potential to double production by early 2022 to 300,000 vehicles a year by deploying two shifts.
Why It Matters: Chip shortage has affected major automakers such as Ford Motor Company F and General Motors Company GM whose automotive earnings fell by a third, according to Bloomberg.
Segment leader Tesla Inc TSLA too closed its Fremont, California factory due to a parts shortage.
Nio delivered 5,578 vehicles in February, compared with 7,225 in January, a fall of 22.8%. The Chinese automaker expects to deliver 20,000 to 20,500 vehicles for the quarter.
Q4 loss per share stood at RMB 0.93 or 14 cents steeper than analysts’ average of seven cents per share.
The company expects to commence exports to Europe in the second half of 2021, according to Li.
Rival Xpeng Inc XPEV started exports to Europe in December and in February dispatched the second batch of its G3 SUVs to the nordic nation.
Price Action: Nio shares fell 4.14% in the after-hours session to $47.70 on Monday after closing 8.69% higher at $49.76.
Click here to check out Benzinga’s EV Hub for the latest electric vehicles news.
Photo: Courtesy of Nio
© 2022 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.


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South Korean leading cryptocurrency exchange launched OTC Bithumb platform for institutional investors and traders Ortus. What digital assets will be submitted to listing sites is still unknown. This is stated in a press release.
The headquarters of Ortus located in Hong Kong, but also opened representative offices in UK, Japan, Australia and Argentina.
Note that the customers of the platform will have to pass the strict KYC/AML procedures.
It is noteworthy that Ortus will offer institutional custody decision with the insurance and will accept money transfers from US banks.
We will remind, recently OTC platform has launched another major Asian player Binance. We will add that similar services are provided by Huobi and OKEx.
Bittrex earlier, the us also announced the launch of the OTC platform with support for over 200 cryptocurrency. In the jurisdiction of the U.S. these services are provided by Coinbase and Poloniex.
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- Nestle, the world's largest food company, is working on a potential drink that could help those with "limited mobility" achieve exercising benefits, Kei Sakamoto, a Nestle scientist, told Bloomberg.
- The scientists are researching natural resources they could use to possibly harness a compound, C13, and the enzyme AMPK, one that handles metabolism.
- "The enzyme can help people who can’t tolerate or continue rigorous exercise," Sakamoto added.
This concept of "exercise in a bottle" would most likely be welcome to those who cannot - or just don't - exercise. Soft drink companies have already committed to lowering calories, but this move by Nestle would certainly be a more swift effort if it indeed happens.


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Devan Greenhouses: ‘Where quality is growing’
Devan Greenhouses has been an industry leader in British Columbia for almost a quarter century.
August 9, 2017 By David Schmidt
August 2017 – After two good years, 2017 is looking to be more of an average year for Devan Greenhouses in Aldergrove, British Columbia. Pieter and Anita deBruin started their nursery in Chilliwack in 1993, moving to their current location on a busy local highway in 2000.
After their last expansion two years ago, Devan now has 1.5 hectares under glass, which includes both growing areas and a retail centre. Despite its limited size, Devan is a busy place, employing about 20 people in the winter and up to 90 in the spring when it does the bulk of its business.
“Our biggest challenge is staffing,” deBruin states. “We train and work with new staff every day. The challenge is to be ready with the people when the season hits.”
With climate change, that has become more and more unpredictable.
In 2015, the season came about two weeks earlier than normal here in B.C. In 2016, it was another two weeks earlier. Starting earlier is not necessarily a blessing. DeBruin notes that if a season starts earlier, it also finishes earlier, so plants not ready for the season remain unsold.
To counter that, Devan, like many nurseries in the province, adjusted its planting schedule to produce bedding plants and other products much earlier this year.
Unfortunately, 2017 did not repeat the pattern of the previous two years. The area was hit with a steady series of unusually large snowfalls from mid-December to early February. Almost incessant rain and unseasonably cool temperatures followed through the rest of February, March and April. That is not conducive to home gardening, so plants expected to sell in March or April were still in the greenhouse, overgrowing their pots.
“A lot of us were caught by that,” deBruin says ruefully.
Devan sells about half of its production through its retail centre with the rest going to other growers and garden centres, primarily in B.C. and Washington state.
“Everything we retail, we wholesale,” deBruin says. “We used to sell to brokers but have been selling direct to growers for the past five years. We have about 500 customers throughout Western Canada.”
Although the weather severely curtailed early sales, they rebounded once the rains lifted and deBruin expects to end the spring season only about five per cent behind last year.
EXTENDING THE RETAIL SEASON
When Devan began its retail centre, it was only open for the spring bedding plant season. Now it remains open through the summer, selling “summer colour” for backyard events. To make that summer colour even more effective, Devan now grows its plants in matching colour pots. Pink flowers adorn pink pots, blue flowers top blue pots, yellow peppers are in yellow pots, while red peppers and strawberries populate red pots.
“You can put less flowers or smaller plants in a coloured pot to have the same effect,” deBruin notes.
He has also started using larger pots. “Consumers want the larger sizes. They would rather have their annuals in four-inch pots. They want something that looks good this weekend.”
That is just one thing he has learned from having a retail centre. “When we were only wholesale growers, we could never understand why certain things don’t sell.”
Although his customers remain predominantly 30- to 60-year-old females, deBruin is noticing more men among the young people frequenting his store. He is also noticing a shift in consumer demand.
“We are selling more fruit and vegetables. We are also selling more dwarf trees and less big trees. People also like plants that look tropical, like mandevilla and windmill palms. They will buy them again. There is also more of a blur between annuals and perennials. If it looks good and has colour, people will buy it.”
Devan’s retail sales manager, Kerry Lewendon, notes young consumers are also very conscious about GMOs and are asking more questions about pesticides and other growing practices.
After the store closes in October, the area is converted into a stockroom for parent stock for their propagation business.
The store is situated in a conventional Venlo greenhouse with shade curtains to keep both the plants and customers cool during hot summer days but most of the rest of the greenhouse is an open-roof greenhouse.
Although it costs about 50 per cent more, deBruin says its has many advantages. In summer, the greenhouse roof completely opens up.
“We treat our growing area like a field. It is a better environment for the bedding plants.”
DeBruin uses an ebb-and-flood sub-irrigation watering system for his floor plants and boomerang sprinklers for hanging baskets which blanket the growing area. Rainwater is collected and all water is recycled after being filtered and treated with anolyte and chlorine dioxide. Heating pipes are located both in-floor and atop the plants.
DeBruin has automated as much of the planting and transplanting as possible. While it hasn’t saved much labour, he notes consistency and quality have improved dramatically.
David Schmidt is a freelance writer/photographer in British Columbia.
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More activity is afoot in the prime residential market after a recent rise in sales amid competitive pricing and various purchase schemes giving buyers more options.
Developer CapitaLand is testing the strength of the high-end market segment with Victoria Park Villas, at the junction of Coronation and Victoria Park Roads, which goes on VIP preview from today.
The 99-year leasehold project consists of 106 semi-detached houses and three bungalows. Floor areas for the former are from 4,155 sq ft while prices are from $4.3 million.
CapitaLand won the Government Land Sales site with a bullish bid of $908 per sq ft (psf) on land in June 2013, or about 17 per cent higher than the next highest bidder.
Market watchers noted that CapitaLand is probably pricing close to cost. In a better market, such houses could sell from about $6 million.
A total of 131 luxury apartments worth $5 million and above were sold in the first half of this year, said a CBRE report released yesterday. This is about 76 per cent of the 166 units sold in the whole of last year.
As at June 30, the overall average price of luxury apartments was $2,950 psf, up from $2,700 psf at the end of last year. This was due to more prime properties being sold recently, such as at Ardmore Three, where 34 units were sold at $3,200 psf in the first half of this year.
Another project, OUE Twin Peaks, is launching units in Tower 1 for sale at the end of this month. OUE has just 10 units left to sell in the other tower at the 99-year leasehold project in Leonie Hill, where prices are from about $2,400 psf.
It is introducing a fourth payment scheme, in addition to three schemes it offered previously – the standard payment scheme, deferred payment scheme and one with a longer option-exercise period. The fourth is a mix of the second and third.
Gramercy Park by City Developments Limited (CDL) has gained some traction as well. The freehold project has not been officially launched but has sold 30 units at an average of about $2,600 psf.
Two-bedroom units with a study and three-bedroom units were especially well-received, a CDL spokesman said. The majority of buyers are Singaporean.
“Most buyers of luxury properties are still Singaporeans, although we have been seeing… more Malaysians, Indonesians and Chinese in the last quarter or so,” said Mr Dominic Lee, a PropNex Realty branch district director. These foreign buyers buy for capital preservation and are undeterred by unfavourable foreign exchange rates, he added.
Prime residential property in Singapore offers compelling pricing compared with other global cities, a recent JLL report noted. Prime home prices in New York and London were 10 to 30 per cent higher than Singapore in 2010.
In the last five years, these rose 20 to 25 per cent while those in Singapore fell 20 per cent.


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In an annual analysts meet, HUL said its recent initiative to divide the country into 14 clusters - Winning in Many Indias - helped increase the quality of distribution and increase be-spoke products and strategies to counter local competition.
"This model brings us even closer to our local consumers and provides us a more granular understanding of customers and competitors," said chairman Harish Manwani at the company's 82nd Annual General Meeting on Monday.
"Innovation-led gross margin expansion followed by efficiencies achieved through economies of scale have resulted in 350bp of operating margin expansion from FY11 to FY15. The pace of growth in Central India continues to outperform the rest of the country, " he added.
As a result, six brands have crossed the annual Rs 2000 crore sales mark, five brands have sales of more than Rs 1000 crore while six brands have sales of Rs 500 crore.
HUL, the country's largest advertiser has also spread its marketing push to new age media - non TV spend is now close to 30% of the total advertising budget from low single digits a few years ago while digital advertising commands about 10% of the budget.


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Coming This Summer: Considerable
Think: a NYC-based media and tech startup that’s on a mission to change the way millions of Americans aged 50-70 research and buy insurance. Considerable is led by Jeffrey Rudolf, who recently served as the VP of Product & Operations at Adweek, where he was responsible for UX, design, content and commercial strategy and planning across all key stakeholder groups.
According to the company’s profile on LinkedIn, Considerable is currently a team of 6, with one open role for a full-stack developer, who will be “developing online tools, forms, wizards and other experiences, that can change the way millions of Americans research and buy insurance products.”
Bottom Line: look for it come July 2018. Recall US-based emerging insurance startups here.


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The global financial crisis hasn’t cut into the number of cruise calls expected by Oslo port officials this season, at least not yet. Large, luxury vessels are tying up almost every day and port officials report the number is up more than 10 percent over last year.
“We’ll have a new record again,” Margrethe Austad of Oslo Havn KF told newspaper Aften recently. A total of 152 cruiseship berthings are expected in the capital this season, up from 138 last year, which was a record of its own.
All told, that’s expected to bring around 260,000 cruise passengers into town. They don’t generate as much tourism revenue as other visitors who stay in local hotels and eat in local restaurants, but tourism officials welcome them just the same.
“For one thing, they can be good ambassadors because they take their experiences home with them and share them,” said Tor Sannerud of the local Oslo tourism office. “They also mean a lot for local museums, boosting the total number of museum visits by as much as a half-million.”
Bergen and Geiranger are also major cruise destinations in Norway and they’re reporting strong seasons as well. Oslo, however, can claim more cruise passengers because the capital can accommodate the largest ships like the Emerald Princess , which is due to visit Oslo five times by the end of June.
Norway’s own coastal voyage passenger line Hurtigruten, however, is struggling with a decline in bookings during the important summer cruise season. The line, which cruises along the Norwegian coast from Bergen to Kirkenes, reported a 10 percent fall in bookings from May to August. The biggest declines came from the American, German and French passenger markets.
Hurtigruten, with departures from Bergen every day, hopes to boost bookings by cutting fares and attracting more Norwegian passengers. The company lost NOK 132.5 million in the first quarter and has cut staff and outsourced its reservations division to Tallinn in an effort to pare costs.


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Production lines equipped with modern manufacturing technology and thorough quality control measures ensure that all of the products meet the high international standards for primary pharmaceutical packaging. Photo: SCHOTT/A. Matjuschetschkin
In addition to strengthening its own domestic pharmaceutical industry, Russia is also trying to convince foreign companies to manufacture inside the country. And, in fact, the Russian government has been able to achieve initial successes in this area. The French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis took over the existing manufacturing sites of Bioton-Wostok when it acquired this insulin manufacturer. The Swiss company Nycomed built a completely new plant in Yaroslavl, about 300 kilometers north-east of Moscow. The American manufacturer Johnson & Johnson decided to enter the Russian market by way of licensed manufacturing and is having its HIV protease inhibitor manufactured by the Russian manufacturer Pharmstandard.
The British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, on the other hand, has chosen to take the route of sharing production. A joint injection production facility is being established together with Binnofarm, a subsidiary of afk-Sistema. The Swiss company Novartis has announced the largest investment thus far. Among other things, the company is planning to invest 500 million dollars in Russia in a manufacturing site for brand generics and pharmaceuticals in Saint Petersburg over the next five years. 1.5 billion units of medications are ex‑ pected to leave the belts in the Special Economic Zone of Novo- Orlovskaya by 2014. Companies like Biokad, Samson-Med, Gerofarm and Farm-Holding are planning to set up operations in the industrial area of “Pushkinskaya” which the city of Saint Petersburg has made available for this specific purpose. As all of these developments show, Russia is seriously interested in internationalizing its pharmaceutical market and has therefore decided to create the right type of climate for investments.
Closer to Russian customers thanks to new pharmaceutical manufacturing facility
These positive trends are also having a similar effect on the packaging market. High-quality primary pharmaceutical packaging made of glass, in particular, is meeting with high demand that is constantly on the rise. SCHOTT Pharmaceutical Packaging elected to establish a production site of its own for ampoules and vials in order to be able to meet this demand even better and more quickly than before. The company decided to open a site in Zavolzhe, a small city located north-west of Nizhny Novgorod. Besides how close it is to Moscow, this region has a solid infrastructure and is already home to many experts. Due to the fact that a SCHOTT production site for flat glass is already located in the region, this opens up opportunities to explore internal synergy effects.
SCHOTT Pharmaceutical Packaging
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Samsung’s under investigation by the European Commission over possible monopoly abuse – just as the company learns it’s failed in its attempt to overturn a ban on selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany.
The EC says it plans to look into whether Samsung – in contravention of a commitment it gave to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) – has failed to license essential phone patents on reasonable terms.
The decision to launch a formal investigation follows an initial anti-trust probe in November.
The move follows Samsung’s attempts to win injunctions against several of its competitors, claiming they infringed its mobile patents. Samsung and Apple, in particular, have beeing suing each other all over the globe.
“In 2011, Samsung sought injunctive relief in various Member States’ courts against competing mobile device makers based on alleged infringements of certain of its patent rights which it has declared essential to implement European mobile telephony standards,” it says in a statement.
“The Commission will investigate, in particular, whether in doing so Samsung has failed to honour its irrevocable commitment given in 1998 to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to license any standard essential patents relating to European mobile telephony standards on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms.”
Meanwhile, Samsung’s had another knock-back in Germany, where it’s been trying to overturn a ban on sames of the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
The Dusseldorf Higher Regional Court has concluded that the lower court was right to block sales of the device – although for the wrong reasons.
While the lower court’s ruling was based on a finding of a violation of a Community Design – the European equivalent of a US design patent –
the appeals court based its decision on German unfair competition law.
But, says patent expert Florian Mueller, such design-related lawsuits have comparatively little value.
“Preliminary injunctions based on such claims can have a temporary disruptive effect, but the world-spanning dispute between Apple and Samsung primarily hinges on the outcome of the parties’ technical patent infringement claims against each other,” he says.


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TOKYO—Toray Industries, Inc., announced that it has decided to establish a new production facility for battery separator film (BSF) for lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) in Nyergesújfalu, Hungary. The new production facility will be located at Toray Industries Hungary Kft. (THU), which was established in April 2018, and will increase the Toray Group’s total BSF production capacity by approximately 20%. The new facility is schedule to begin operations in July 2021.
The Toray Group already has BSF production facilities at the Nasu Plant in Japan and in the Republic of Korea, where Toray Battery Separator Film Korea Limited (TBSK) engages in development, production and sale of BSF, while Toray BSF Coating Korea Limited (TBCK) handles coating processes. In 2017, Toray announced facility investments to expand capacity in these two locations and new lines have been started-up since fiscal 2018. Going forward, global demand for BSF is projected to expand rapidly, given steady expansionary trends in consumer applications like mobile electronics and energy storage system, and the anticipated robust increase in automotive applications as electric vehicles (EV) become more popular. In Europe in particular, where environmental awareness is increasing, it is anticipated that eco-friendly EV vehicles will rapidly spread, and battery manufacturers are also actively entering European markets. Toray has taken the basic strategic approach of “local production for local consumption” in its overseas business development. By locating production facilities in areas close to customers, Toray aims to respond to growing demand and also to contribute to the economic development of local regions and communities. In the films business, in the Medium-term Management Program, Project AP-G 2019, that Toray is currently implementing, one of the basic goals is “Expand business by expansion of high value-added products in growth business fields and maximum utilization of global bases.” Expanding the BSF business is positioned as the greatest priority within this business domain. Under its corporate philosophy, “Contributing to society through the creation of new value with innovative ideas, technologies and products,” the Toray Group is responding actively to expanding demand for BSF, which is a primary component of LiB, seeking thereby to contribute to efforts to reduce environmental impact. The Toray Group is endeavoring to secure the leading position in the global market for BSF.
Versalis to acquire remaining 60% stake in Finproject to become the Italian leader in the production of special polymers
Closing is expected in the fourth quarter of 2021 and follows Versalis’ acquisition of 40% of the company which took place in July 2020. The operation will allow for the development of more special...
Versalis to acquire technologies and plants for the new mechanical recycling hub at Porto Marghera, Italy
Versalis accelerates developments in advanced mechanical recycling and expand the portfolio of the Versalis Revive® range of recycled polymers, consolidating its European leadership in recycled sty...
Shell to build one of Europe’s biggest biofuels facilities in Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Shell announced to build an 820,000-tonnes-a-year biofuels facility that will be among the biggest in Europe to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel made from waste.
Cooperation Uniper and Port of Rotterdam Authority in production green hydrogen
The companies have entered into an agreement for developing the production of green hydrogen at the Uniper location on Maasvlakte.


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Xiaomi Mi Note 10 and Mi Note 10 Pro Launched
Xiaomi is back again on the headlines with its new announcements. Yesterday, Xiaomi announced its CC9 Pro smartphone with a 108 Megapixel lens. And today, the company has announced two new smartphones i.e. Xiaomi Mi Note 10 and Mi Note 10 Pro.
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Mexico City — This year has been a difficult one for mature startups, but not so for those recently created, which maintained a peak in investment. In Latin America there are still several problems that new companies seek to solve with innovative business models, and, given those opportunities, Bloomberg Línea has consulted specialists who advise on what you could be good businesses to launch in 2023.
For starters, 2023 will be a good year for entrepreneurship. According to Brian Requarth, co-founder of Latitud, seed capital is the least affected by the investment slowdown.
Requarth, who is also the author of the book ‘Viva the Entrepreneur’, believes that in order to determine what kind of company to start in 2023, the most attractive area for investors are the technology sectors that do not require a huge amount of capital.
These sectors, Requarth says, can be the verticalized software service and B2B businesses, because in comparison with B2C, they require less capital, whereas B2C needs a greater investment to attract users.
What businesses to launch in 2023
In recent years, there has been a transformation in value chains and sectors such as mobility, education, health, welfare and food, says Mariano Mayer, co-founder and managing partner of Argentine fund Newtopia.
And for his part, Daniel Bronsoiler, senior VC analyst at DILA Capital, believes that given the macroeconomic environment, inflation, rising interest rates and a possible recession, countercyclical industries such as healthtech and cybersecurity will become more important in the coming year.
Latin American venture capitalists agree that entrepreneurship in 2023 in the following industries could be a good business.
In 2023, the sector will continue to be the industry in which most capital is invested. This will not change in the near future, Bronsoiler told Bloomberg Línea. “In particular, I think embedded finance will pick up steam in the next year, not as a sector, but as a second layer for different industries.”
Mayer agrees that the new opportunities are in second- to third-generation projects that are looking to provide support and infrastructure to everyone on the front lines looking to transform.
“Despite our efforts, we still need to achieve greater adoption, because financial inclusion is much more than just having a card, there are many things behind it,” says the co-creator of Newtopia.
Insurtech, Web3 and crypto will also grow, despite the downward trend that reigned this year, and the fall of FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Cristóbal Perdomo, co-founder and general partner of Mexican fund Wollef Ventures, says that online sales are not the only thing offering opportunities, but all the enablers around them that drive it, such as payments, logistics, security and traceability.
With the explosion of digitization in Latin America, delivery services and tools supporting e-commerce and other aspects of consumption, this industry and those companies that add value to it will be highly relevant during 2023, adds DILA Capital’s Bronsoiler.
In addition, due to the US-China trade war, there has been a large migration of manufacturers and suppliers from China to Mexico.
“In search of greater efficiency and productivity, innovative technological solutions have been incorporated into this supply chain and it is in this sector where we are seeing very interesting opportunities,” Bronsoiler says.
Bronsoiler assures that educational technologies (edtech) “are an industry that is little talked about, however, the opportunity, and the impact it will have, is enormous. I see companies in this sector with a lot of potential for growth and interest from investors”.
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Latin America has seen a growth in the volume of capital raised for Software as a Service (SaaS) startups. Venture capital injections in the space grew 100% between 2013 and 2021, and between 2020 and 2021 alone grew sevenfold. Rounds are increasingly larger, growing from $3 million in 2013 to $500 million in 2021, according to Latitud’s The LatAm Tech Report.
Investment in climate tech is recession-proof, with growing demand for solutions, and even during 2022, investment has remained steady.
A PitchBook analysis shared by TechCrunch shows that the average value per deal was $23.6 million at the end of Q2 2022, more than triple what it was five years ago.
Globally, some trends are looking at biotech replacements for high-emission foods, providing carbon calculation and accounting tools, encouraging agroforestry and reforestation, providing electric transportation, and tokenizing carbon credits and other environmental assets.
Current and cross-sector trends in Latin America include for adaptation responses, such as paid ecosystem protection, ocean and coastal initiatives, urban water and housing management, climate-smart agriculture and reforestation.
This is a sector that is seeing an increase in capital injection at a faster pace. In 2021, health-related startups increased their annual funding by 4,700%, with an overall startup ecosystem growth of 1,800% in the same period, according to Latitude’s report.
Among the immediate trends, the study highlights the increased impact and opportunity for technology in telemedicine, mental health, health insurance, wellness, dental solutions and employee benefits.
In the medium and long term for Latin American healthcare technologies, the greatest opportunities are detected in data interoperability, remote patient monitoring, virtual reality for surgeries, wearables, the internet of medical things, and big data and artificial intelligence.
The wellness industry was boosted during the Covid-19 pandemic, which further exposed the importance of healthy living, says Newtopia’s Mayer.
Among the sub-sectors in which to launch a business in 2023 are startups that have to do with the promotion of physical activity, with mental wellness, and the relationship with medicine, which is also related to foodtech.
“Sectors are linked with others, and what is interesting about this moment is that there are cross-cutting themes across all sectors,” Mayer says.
One sector that is very much combined with fitness, says Mayer, is human resources technology (HR tech).
“It’s super strong, with different optics and tools, at a time when the world of work is at the peak. On the one hand, we have a lot of people who have jobs, but are not very happy, and on the other hand, the challenge of making a mix between remote and on-site,” Mayer says.
In Latin America, within HR tech, there are also emerging startups that are seeking to connect supply with demand of technological talent, or those that are providing retraining, flexible benefits for employees and those that combine the financial part and give salaries on demand, loans or corporate cards to their employees.
Translated from the Spanish by Adam Critchley


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Apple is going to launch the next iPhone on September 12, but it seems like leaks about the upcoming device are not going to stop anytime soon. According to the latest leak, the name of the upcoming iPhone won't be iPhone 8. Instead, it will be launched as the "iPhone X".
A tech website, LetsGoDigital recently published a report on leaked images of the iPhone box that was sent to it by a Dutch carrier. The box has "iPhone X" written on the side. The website has not revealed the name of the carrier, but it did describe it as "the biggest provider of telecommunications and IT services in the Netherlands". It also mentioned that this telecom provider would be among the first to start selling the new iPhone as soon as it becomes available. The website has removed the images of the leaked packaging on request so you will not be able to see it. However, you can view them on Pasteboard.
Apple has not confirmed the image of the leaked retail packaging, but it looks quite believable and logical as the iPhone 8 was meant to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the first iPhone and the name "iPhone X" is more suitable as X in roman stands for 10. Not only LetsGoDigital, but the serial leakster Evan Blass also seems to be rooting for the name iPhone X.
In addition to LetsGoDigital, another Dutch website iCulture also reported that Apple's 10th anniversary iPhone would be named the iPhone X.
Well, we don't know how far these leaked images stand true for the upcoming iPhone. Only time will tell if it is indeed the iPhone X or Apple sticks to its usual naming pattern by naming it the iPhone 8. There are also other name suggestions for the upcoming iPhone such as the iPhone Air, iPhone Pro or iPhone Edition.
Launching on September 12
Apple will be holding the launch event on September 12 in California at its new headquarters "spaceship campus". The event will start at 10 AM Pacific Time, and it will be livestreamed so that Apple fanboys don't miss anything.
News Source: LetsGoDigital


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In India, bigger is better when it comes to mobile phones, but Apple is lagging behind competitors like Samsung and Xiaomi.
A swarm of small satellites could give critical infrastructure an Internet connection that never goes down.
Researchers have shown that rigid lithium-ion batteries can be made more suitable for smart watches and other flexible electronics.
New diagnostics can find the DNA that drives a tumor, but evidence that they help patients is missing.
A startup called MetaMind has developed a new, improved algorithm for processing language.
Astro banks on a lightbulb with a built-in speaker as the way to connect more renters and apartment dwellers to the Internet of things.
Backing from disparate investors such as General Motors and a vacuum maker has given the battery startup Sakti3 an unusual amount of momentum.
America’s communications infrastructure is finally getting some crucial upgrades because one company is forcing competition when regulators won’t.
From the Great Depression, a call to embrace the benefits of machinery.
Rapid industrialization and rising standards of living have made China the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide. Preventing a runaway increase will require the country to keep per capita emissions at a relatively low level.


text: There’s nothing worse than a backseat driver which is why the new Audi A8 L, stretched by 13 centimeters compared to the standard version might go a long way in shutting them up. We told you about the Audi A8 coming to India, but what we didn't expect was its upgraded version - the A8 long-wheel base to arrive in its stead. We're not complaining though. Are you? What's more, the luxury sedan launched simultaneously with the Audi showroom on Mathura Road, New Delhi, the largest luxury showroom we’ve ever seen. Actor John Abraham attended the launch accompanied by Gul Panag and the reigning Miss Universe 2010 - Ximena Navarrete. “In 2010, we achieved record sales and strengthened customer touch points through new showrooms in Mumbai (West), Kolkata, Bengaluru and Jaipur,” said Michael Perschke, head of Audi India. “In addition to our established dealership network, we will continue to offer our customers a strong product line coupled with world class services.” The new A8 L is available with a 4.8 FSI petrol engine and is priced at Rs. 89,00,000 (ex-showroom).